My current work in PRC History, tentatively titled Truth Revolutions: Consciousness and the Praxis of Chinese Communism, investigates how Chinese Communists at various levels, from Mao Zedong to village cadres, understood their work as a global praxis that fomented revolution by facilitating profound and personal changes in individual consciousness. I consider multiple mobilization sites, from the Chinese “brainwashing” camps for Korean-War POWs to reception offices for “the masses” (and letters from the masses) in Chinese villages and cities. I also examine, in turn, how the individuals the Party attempted to mobilize viewed that encounter as one that transformed (or failed to transform) their understanding of the world and their role in revolution. (Sources: official PRC archives, oral histories, discarded government documents and letters sent by citizens to the state, which I gathered from flea markets, etc.)

I serve as co-director of the PRC History Group and editor for H-PRC,. At MSU, I teach classes about Chinese history, gender and sexuality, and the history of communism.